1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a unified ordering, accounting, warehousing, inventory, sales, delivery and communications system and method. Although the system and method pertain to furniture operations and sales, the system and method can also be used by different entities in other retail and wholesale operations.
2. Description of Related Art
Computerized methods of doing business have been prevalent over the last twenty-five years, and have allowed a very broad range of business and customer users to work and operate more efficiently. These users will include manufacturers, purchasing agents, inventory control staff, sales representatives, retailers and wholesalers. This broad range of users using computerized methods of doing business are also reflected in the related art.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,123 issued to Vereen outlines the use of an automated tracking process for items of manufacture and inventory, in which each item and each grouping or location of items is labeled with a unique nonvolatile machine-readable code identifying a corresponding data record maintained in a programmable digital computer. A plurality of label reading devices are utilized to report the passage or association of items to the computer, either directly in realtime or via delayed batch entry from offline storage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,208 issued to Schneider et al. outlines the use of an inventory control system, and more particularly relates to such a system for controlling sales activity and inventory of special order items between a plurality of remote locations and a central location. The system is adapted to provide instant communications between retail establishments and a manufacturer, and enables the order to be confirmed at the time of purchase.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,425 issued to Povilus outlines a data structure and method for creating, maintaining and publishing multiple renditions of both electronic and printed, single and multiple manufacturer catalogs using a single product database. The product database includes a listing of SKUs, with each SKU corresponding to a product or a component of a product and specific product information.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,807 issued to Purcell outlines a system and method for matching buyers and sellers of products and services. Specifically, the system and method pertains to automated and computerized methods and systems for creating a depository for sellers to indicate inventory availability and a source for buyers to access to review those seller's inventories for purchase purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,023,683 issued to Johnson et al. outlines an electronic sourcing system and method for interfacing product information found in vendor catalogs that are provided to customers and requisition and purchasing systems and methods that may use the results of product information searches.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,557 issued to Freeman outlines a computer program which displays a number of objects in a categorization table for ordering materials and supplies. The ordering program displays a categorization table that organizes data under successive and expandable levels of categorized headings, assigns the appropriate vendor specific names, SKU codes, part numbers, universal product codes and bar codes and then transfers this information to a merchant or vendor for processing an order.
Although each of these business systems and methods are useful in a specific application (For example, inventory control, sales, purchasing, manufacturing, etc.), what is really needed is an overall business system and method that allows for the efficient management of the relationship between retail, wholesale and manufacturing businesses.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.